The Kentucky-based startup says the funding will support efforts to commercialize its Tinfab metal-oxide electron transport layer (ETL) material, which it claims is up to ten times more effective than materials currently in widespread use.
Sofab Inks, a manufacturer of functionalized metal oxide materials based in Louisville, Kentucky, has announced it has raised a $6 million round of seed funding.
The startup said it will use the funding to support the adoption of its Tinfab nanoparticle material, which serves as an electron transport layer (ETL) in advanced perovskite solar cells.
In April, the company announced a breakthrough in perovskite durability, after Halocell modules containing the Tinfab ETL demonstrated approximately 100% normalized efficiency following 1,300 hours under accelerated combined light and damp-heat testing of 1,000 lux illumination, 85% relative humidity and 65 C.
“Tinfab has proven itself at pilot scale and on production equipment,” Blake Martin, co-founder and CEO of Sofab Inks, told pv magazine. “This round is about getting it into customers’ hands: translating that performance to each manufacturer’s site, building out the data package and support that makes integration fast, and scaling our manufacturing so supply is never the bottleneck.”
